Vicar’s “Wicked Hymn”
HETERMINED to make church people take notice of the words of the hymns they sing, the Rev. T. P. Stevens, vicar of St. Matthew’s, New Kent Road, London, has written what he calls “a wicked hymn.” Its second verse runs as follows: There is no spirit, saint or devil, Nothing but what roc see; There is no good or mean , or evil — Such terms are fantasy. Eat. drink, be merry, that is our aim , I To to r ing life’s pleasures dry. So let us spend our days in riot , And laugh our lives away. These words, he says in his parish
magazine, are not more stupid than some of the hymns people love to sing. Given the tune of “Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes,” thousands of congregations would sing them with enthusiasm, because they never think about the words, but only the tune. The vicar says the words of the wellknown hymn: Soon shall come the great awakening, Soon the rending of the tomb, are “absolutely untrue and unreal” in sentiment, and that “there is no shadow of evidence that anything of the kind will happen.” It is the same, he continues, with the popular Easter hymn:
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SUNAK19290420.2.132
Bibliographic details
Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 643, 20 April 1929, Page 18
Word Count
203Vicar’s “Wicked Hymn” Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 643, 20 April 1929, Page 18
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